A Prince George man was sentenced Thursday to a further 8 1/2 months in jail for groping a 10-year-old boy.
In issuing the term to Tanner James William Dick, 36, provincial court judge Shannon Keyes found he posed a high risk to re-offend and showed a lack of remorse or insight into his behaviour.
Dick did plead guilty to sexually interfering with a minor but beyond that Keyes had little good to say about the man.
The court heard he groped the boy, who lived in his neighbourhood, in July 2017 while the two were out riding Dick's ATV and, in the days leading up to the incident, had taken steps to groom the youngster.
Those steps included sending him text messages with heart-shaped emojis, playing with him at a backyard pool and taking him out on another ATV ride the day before the incident.
In doing so, Dick gained the boy's trust and "set up the environment in which this event is possible," the judge found.
The boy initially thought Dick's actions were accidental but the man persisted and made sexually-loaded comments. Dick then stopped to smoke some marijuana and offered some to the boy.
Frightened, the boy feigned sunstroke to convince Dick to take him home. That worked, and the boy ran to a relative's home and texted his mother, who was at work.
The boy then went to a friend's home where he told two other boys what had happened. They stayed together in the friend's bedroom and played video games while waiting for the boy's mother.
However, Dick showed up and let himself into the bedroom and tried to strike up a conversation about sex, pornography and drugs. Dick then made further advances on the boy who had been lying on the friend's bed. He lied on top of the boy, wouldn't get off him and made noises as if he was having sex.
At the time, Dick had been living with his mother and collecting a long-term disability pension of $1,200 per month which, he told the the author of a pre-sentence report, he had spent almost entirely on marijuana and alcohol.
Keyes made note of a history of substance abuse and a refusal to seek help. He was very hyperactive as a child but refused to take medication which led to him not being invited to family events. He had been expelled from school at age 15 for drug and alcohol and at age 18 suffered a head injury.
Keyes also noted Dick scored extremely low on a screening for intellectual ability and that a psychiatrist found he operated in a capacity diminished by drugs and alcohol. However, she also found that was no excuse.
"Sometimes these offences are committed by adults who are almost children themselves, perhaps only 18 or 19 years old," Keyes said. "Such young adults may perceive the children they victimize as no different than themselves.
"That is not the case here. Mr. Dick was certainly old enough to know better."
Defence counsel had argued for the minimum sentence of one year but Keyes found that is appropriate for an offender committing the "least serious offence in the least serious circumstances and who has the best of circumstances" and counted the fact Dick has a criminal record and had targeted a child as counts against him.
Crown counsel, in turn, had argued for two years and Keyes settled on 22 months.
Because Dick had remained in custody since his arrest, he received credit of 13 1/2 months time served, reducing the amount left in the jail sentence to 8 1/2 months.
Dick must also serve three years probation upon completion of his sentence.
